In my last post, I shared with you some of the things that I do in my home and in my life to help the environment. But one person isn't enough. We need to get more and more people outraged at the way our earth is being treated by, most specifically, big oil companies. I just sat down this afternoon and watched a fascinating documentary called Fuel. Josh Tickell, the creator of the film, is sort of the Michael Moore of the biofuel movement.
The movie starts out very bleak and makes you feel outraged at how oil companies have ravaged, not only our environment, but the health of its inhabitants. Yes, I will be the first to admit that this movie is slanted to the left, and that there isn't much room for oppositional arguments, but I think Tickell feels like we're running short on time here. If we don't do something about this dependence on fossil fuels NOW, then our nation is going to implode. I can forgive his overzealousness because I understand his plight. As Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says in the film, "We have lost our greatness because we put oil before the Bill of Rights."
As the movie progresses, however, the bleakness transitions into hope and you start to see how it is possible to eradicate our country and our world of its dependence on fossil fuels if we just stop letting oil conglomerates run our government.
I was at first skeptical of the idea of using biodiesel due to the possibility of the need for fuel to take over the food supply, but once Tickell showed that it's possible to create the fuel from waste rather than virgin crop, I was sold.
There's no doubt that the politics of this movie lean to the left, but to me, the future of our children and our world goes beyond politics. Everyone should go out and buy this movie or, better yet, spend less money and create less waste like I did and check it out from your library.
Watch the Fuel movie trailer:
Spread the word.
Showing posts with label green living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green living. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Doing My Part
Besides the fact that I love to read, write, cook, and travel, I'm also a zealous environmentalist. Ever since I was old enough to understand that trees help us breathe, I've been a proponent of the three r's: reduce, reuse, recycle.
But it wasn't until my husband and I moved to Germany and I saw how preserving the environment was more important to Germans than consumption that I really developed my passion for saving the environment. Now that we've been back in the states for over five years, I am saddened and sickened by the sense of entitlement Americans have displayed over the years at exploiting, not only our resources, but the resources of other, much poorer nations.
I want so badly for that to change. I despise being wasteful. It pains me to throw away a piece of paper or a plastic bottle. Before our school implemented a paper recycling program, I would tote all the paper used in my classroom home and recycle it curbside. Even today, we have yet to implement plastic recycling, I tell all my students to throw away their empties in a crate at the front of the room and I will take them home to recycle them when it gets full. Bonus points for anyone who brings in a reusable water bottle instead of disposable (not really, but they will receive my utmost praise).
My husband and I have made a conscious effort these past five years to become less wasteful and to recycle more than we throw away. And now, to reduce our waste even further, I have finally started composting. I have wanted to take on this endeavor for a couple years now, but never knew how to do it in such a small area since my husband and I live in a condo. Luckily, our condo has a backyard, but not much of that backyard is actually space that we own.
I have been concerned about starting this project because I feared that an open compost container would attract rodents and other unpleasant creatures and we already have a mice issue in our basement. But I also didn't want to purchase one of those ridiculously expensive compost tumblers because the whole idea of composting is to be cost-efficient, not cost-promiscuous.
So I was doing some research online about how to compost in small spaces, and I came across a website that talked about just doing it in a plastic storage tub with holes drilled throughout for air. I liked this idea, there was just one problem with it: it's an eyesore. My husband and I have worked really hard at making our back patio a pleasant place to hang out and enjoy the sun and shade. I didn't want an ugly storage container jeopardizing that feeling of serenity. But, my desire to be green was still overriding my desire to make my backyard beautiful.
As luck would have it though, I was cruising around Target the other day and found a small deck bench that gave me an idea: what if I used the plastic storage container and put it inside the more aesthetically pleasing deck bench?
The results were, I think, exactly what I was looking for.
At the present moment, these are the only holes I have drilled in the bench itself. This may change if I think it needs more aeration. I didn't want to put too many holes on the outside for fear of ruining the aesthetics of it.
All our plant waste waiting for the magic of decomposition to do its thing.
My next self-improvement project for helping the environment is to reduce my meat consumption. This has been a much more difficult step for me, but I'm trying really hard to introduce myself to new flavors and textures in my culinary repertoire that will reduce my fixation on meat.
What do YOU do to help the environment?
But it wasn't until my husband and I moved to Germany and I saw how preserving the environment was more important to Germans than consumption that I really developed my passion for saving the environment. Now that we've been back in the states for over five years, I am saddened and sickened by the sense of entitlement Americans have displayed over the years at exploiting, not only our resources, but the resources of other, much poorer nations.
I want so badly for that to change. I despise being wasteful. It pains me to throw away a piece of paper or a plastic bottle. Before our school implemented a paper recycling program, I would tote all the paper used in my classroom home and recycle it curbside. Even today, we have yet to implement plastic recycling, I tell all my students to throw away their empties in a crate at the front of the room and I will take them home to recycle them when it gets full. Bonus points for anyone who brings in a reusable water bottle instead of disposable (not really, but they will receive my utmost praise).
My husband and I have made a conscious effort these past five years to become less wasteful and to recycle more than we throw away. And now, to reduce our waste even further, I have finally started composting. I have wanted to take on this endeavor for a couple years now, but never knew how to do it in such a small area since my husband and I live in a condo. Luckily, our condo has a backyard, but not much of that backyard is actually space that we own.
I have been concerned about starting this project because I feared that an open compost container would attract rodents and other unpleasant creatures and we already have a mice issue in our basement. But I also didn't want to purchase one of those ridiculously expensive compost tumblers because the whole idea of composting is to be cost-efficient, not cost-promiscuous.
So I was doing some research online about how to compost in small spaces, and I came across a website that talked about just doing it in a plastic storage tub with holes drilled throughout for air. I liked this idea, there was just one problem with it: it's an eyesore. My husband and I have worked really hard at making our back patio a pleasant place to hang out and enjoy the sun and shade. I didn't want an ugly storage container jeopardizing that feeling of serenity. But, my desire to be green was still overriding my desire to make my backyard beautiful.
As luck would have it though, I was cruising around Target the other day and found a small deck bench that gave me an idea: what if I used the plastic storage container and put it inside the more aesthetically pleasing deck bench?
The results were, I think, exactly what I was looking for.
At the present moment, these are the only holes I have drilled in the bench itself. This may change if I think it needs more aeration. I didn't want to put too many holes on the outside for fear of ruining the aesthetics of it.
All our plant waste waiting for the magic of decomposition to do its thing.
My next self-improvement project for helping the environment is to reduce my meat consumption. This has been a much more difficult step for me, but I'm trying really hard to introduce myself to new flavors and textures in my culinary repertoire that will reduce my fixation on meat.
What do YOU do to help the environment?
Friday, June 11, 2010
Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World by Diane MacEachern
With all that is going on in the Gulf right now with this BP disaster, many of us feel angry and powerless as to what we can do to make a positive impact on the environment.This book is the ultimate reference guide to teach us how to use our wallets to drive consumer demand for greener products. MacEachern's thesis espouses that when we start demanding better products, and we use our money to purchase them, we're telling businesses what we value and they will start providing what consumers want.
The chapters are divided into the following ideas/products:
1) Why your big green purse matters
2) Principles
3) Beauty products
4) Cars and transportation
5) Hot stuff: coffee, tea, cocoa
6) Food
7) Cleaning products
8) Clothing and accessories
9) Lawn and garden
10) Kids
11) Lights, appliances, and electronics
12) Furniture, paint, flooring, fabrics
I checked this book out at the library, but I will definitely be purchasing my own copy as a reference to use whenever I need to make a purchase from one of the categories above.
For those people who think that environmentalism hurts business, they need to crawl out from under the rock they've been living in. Once upon a time, it was thought that if you were for the environment, you were against business. But now being Green is a business, and if you don't jump on the bandwagon, you're going to find yourself losing money. People are starting to understand the need to make more sustainable choices, and therefore, our purchases are beginning to be motivated by that understanding. I think fairly soon, we're going to see a paradigm shift (actually, the shift is happening right now as we speak). What was once thought as hurtful to business will become the status quo. Bravo to MacEachern for helping to make this shift all the more easy for consumers.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman
I read this book a year ago, but given the devastation that this BP oil well disaster is causing in the Gulf of Mexico, I can only pray that this moment is the impetus for the world to attempt to eradicate its dependence on fossil fuels. Complacency and maintaining the status quo are no longer acceptable. It's time to stop letting oil executives hoard money while they destroy our children's futures.
I've gotta give Friedman credit. While a lot of this book was very slow-going and I will admit that I skimmed through quite a few places that I felt were a bit over my head, I have to say that Friedman sure knows how to lay out a thesis. From what I remember about The World is Flat and now this book, he knows how to write a "Chapter 1" that draws everyone into his argument. Even though I skimmed through quite a few pages, as a whole, I feel like this is a book that all Americans should read - especially those in any sort of political office. Our American way of life just cannot continue at the pace it's going right now and Friedman gives not only explanations as to how this mess all started, but he actually gives some possible solutions. The solutions he gives are extremely large scale and not something easily solved, but if enough people in the political world can get behind his message, maybe it is possible.
What he said about oil and petrodictators really hit home for me. Especially when on p. 80 he quotes Peter Schwartz, the chairman of Global Business Network as saying American energy policy today is, "Maximize demand, minimize supply, and make up the difference by buying as much as we can from the people who hate us the most." Yeah, as Friedman says, "I can't think of anything more stupid."
I also thought it was very interesting the connection he made to urban Islam (Cairo-Istanbul-Damascus-Casablanca) vs. desert Islam (mainly Saudi) and how that has affected the climate of freedom in the Middle East. I was extremely appalled to find out that those urban Islam centers have been almost completely flushed out by Saudi investors who now control the media in those areas and dictate what the once progressive areas can watch and even what kinds of films they can make.
There were quite a few passages from this book that really hit home for me:
On pp. 8-9
In some ways, the subprime mortgage mess and housing crisis are metaphors for what has come over America in recent years. A certain connection between hard work, achievement, and accountability has been broken. We've become a subprime nation that thinks it can just borrow its way to prosperity - putting nothing down and making no payments for two years...as with our homes, so with our country: we have been mortgaging our future rather than investing in it.
On p. 93
I started mulling the First Law of Petropolitics after 9/11, reading its daily headlines and listening to the news. When I heard Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, telling British prime minister Tony Blair to "go to hell" and telling his supporters that the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas coalition "can go to hell" too, I couldn't help saying to myself: "I wonder if the president of Venezuela would be saying these things if the price of oil today were $20 a barrel rather than $60 or $70 a barrel and his country had to make a living by empowering its own entrepreneurs, not just drilling holes in the ground!"
On p. 177 on asking French president Nicolas Sarkozy a question at a journalists' breakfast:
"What would be the impact if America became the world leader on combating climate change rather than the world's laggard?" Sarkozy began by talking about his love for American culture: "I grew up listening to Elvis Presley... I grew up watching American films... America is a story of unprecedented economic success, unprecedented democratic success...I will always love America. So when I see the U.S. hated by everyone, it really pains me." And when America is not taking the lead on such an important global issue as climate change, added the French president, "I am asking, 'Where is the American dream? What happened? Where has it gone?...You are bounded by two oceans. You will be the first to be affected by rising sea levels. You should be setting the example. You should be spearheading the battle for the environment.'"
On pp. 241-242 on talking to a group of Chinese auto executives:
Every year I come to China and young Chinese tell me, "Mr Freidman, you Americans got to grow dirty for 150 years - you got to have your Industrial Revolution based on coal and oil - now it is our turn." Well on behalf of all Americans, I am here today to tell you that you're right. It's your turn. Please, take your time, grow as dirty as you like for as long as you like. Take your time! Please! Because I think my country needs only five years to invent all the clean power and energy efficiency tools that you, China, will need to avoid choking on pollution, and then we are going to come over and sell them all to you. We will get at least a five year jump on you in the next great global industry: clean power and energy efficiency. We will totally dominate you in those industries. So please, don't rush, grow as dirty as you like for as long as you want. If you want to do it for five more years, that's great. If you want to give us a ten-year lead on the next great global industry, that would be even better. Please, take your time.
On p. 245:
In what free market would you find the U.S. government slap a 54-cent a gallon tariff on sugarcane ethanol imported from Brazil, a democratic ally of the United States, while imposing only a 1.25 cent a gallon tariff on crude oil imported from Saudi Arabia, the home of most of the 9/11 hijackers? Only in a market where the American corn lobby has enough clout in Congress to prevent Brazilian sugar ethanol from competing with American corn ethanol.
On p. 259:
Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.
On p. 265 when talking about conservative politicians complaining about gasoline taxes and what pro-green revolution politicians should say:
The American people certainly have been taxed quite enough I totally agree. Right now they are being taxed by Saudi Arabia, taxed by Venezuela, taxed by Russia, taxed by Iran, and, if we stay on this track, they'll soon be taxed by Mother Nature. And when Mother Nature starts taxing us there will be no politician you can call on the phone to get relief. So let's get one thing straight: My opponent and I are both for a tax. I just have this quaint, old-fashioned view that my taxes should go to the U.S. Treasury, not the Saudi Treasury, and not the Russian Treasury.
And finally, on p. 397:
It is much more important to change your leaders than your lightbulbs.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Celebrate Earth Day
Happy Earth Day!Go hug a tree! Go eat some granola! Put on your tie-dyed shirts!
Then go do something useful: Change your light bulbs. Recycle Reduce Reuse. Ride your bike. Make more conscious, sustainable food choices.
Love,
a tree-hugging hippie. ;o)
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Why Didn't I Come Across This Before Christmas?
Furoshiki gift wrapping from RecycleNow on Vimeo
You can even download gift tags to show the receiver of the gift how to turn the wrapping into a bag.
I need to remember to come back to this post next Christmas when I'm tempted to wrap everyone's present in beautiful, yet wasteful paper.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Don't listen to Kermit, being Green is getting easier
Students have not arrived at school yet. Michigan has been blessed with an extra week of summer vacation this year due to the lateness of Labor Day. But the lack of hot days and abundance of temperatures in the 60s and 70s has left many people scratching their heads proclaiming, "So where's this global warming BS that Al Gore's talking about?"
I'll be the first to admit, I'm a lover of all things Green, but even I had to ask myself this question a time or two. Then I remembered that I teach English and not science for a reason. I'm never going to fully understand how the cycles of weather and sea levels work, and for me, it's not just about global warming; it's about being a good citizen of the earth.
People who balk at others trying to make greener choices, implying that we're all tree-hugging, granola eating, electricity shunning, Ralph Nader following hippies, need to open their eyes. Making greener choices is not about giving things up - it's about choosing better ways to maintain the lifestyle we're already living. I don't see how buying a few reusable water bottles and hydrating yourself that way rather than consuming water from a disposable bottle that clogs up landfills and creates a ridiculous amount of carbon emissions is asking you to give anything up, especially when study after study has shown that tap water is actually better for you anyway .
In 2009, Green innovation is attempting to create jobs that help evolve technology, not devolve it. No one's asking you to give anything up. We're not asking you to sell your cars and start getting around via horse and buggy. We're asking you to be part of the paradigm shift that's helping to promote the technologies that are helping to create a better sustainable living model. Let's find ways to get solar and wind power to work en masse so that we don't have to rely on polluting coal fired power plants anymore. Let's find a way to farm more responsibly so that we're not ingesting potentially harmful chemicals into our bodies. Let's find a way to make transportation more efficient and less wasteful of natural resources.
For me, being Green is not about politics. It's about respecting God's creation. It's about remembering that what we do today will impact what we leave behind for our children. So I'm sorry if some of you out there find that irritating because I personally just find it being a responsible citizen.
I'll be the first to admit, I'm a lover of all things Green, but even I had to ask myself this question a time or two. Then I remembered that I teach English and not science for a reason. I'm never going to fully understand how the cycles of weather and sea levels work, and for me, it's not just about global warming; it's about being a good citizen of the earth.
People who balk at others trying to make greener choices, implying that we're all tree-hugging, granola eating, electricity shunning, Ralph Nader following hippies, need to open their eyes. Making greener choices is not about giving things up - it's about choosing better ways to maintain the lifestyle we're already living. I don't see how buying a few reusable water bottles and hydrating yourself that way rather than consuming water from a disposable bottle that clogs up landfills and creates a ridiculous amount of carbon emissions is asking you to give anything up, especially when study after study has shown that tap water is actually better for you anyway .
In 2009, Green innovation is attempting to create jobs that help evolve technology, not devolve it. No one's asking you to give anything up. We're not asking you to sell your cars and start getting around via horse and buggy. We're asking you to be part of the paradigm shift that's helping to promote the technologies that are helping to create a better sustainable living model. Let's find ways to get solar and wind power to work en masse so that we don't have to rely on polluting coal fired power plants anymore. Let's find a way to farm more responsibly so that we're not ingesting potentially harmful chemicals into our bodies. Let's find a way to make transportation more efficient and less wasteful of natural resources.
For me, being Green is not about politics. It's about respecting God's creation. It's about remembering that what we do today will impact what we leave behind for our children. So I'm sorry if some of you out there find that irritating because I personally just find it being a responsible citizen.
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